


Immortal

by AdaMarina



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017), PKNA - Paperinik New Adventures
Genre: Also kinda angst with a kinda happy ending?, Crossover, I have begun to remedy this on tumblr, I love this pairing and there's not nearly enough content for it, M/M, Now to start here...., Uno is an android
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-06
Updated: 2018-11-06
Packaged: 2019-08-19 19:52:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16541096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdaMarina/pseuds/AdaMarina
Summary: Time passes quickly when you're an immortal among mortals.





	Immortal

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this almost a month ago. I've refrained for the most part from sharing my DUno works here, keeping it mostly to tumblr.... but you know what, screw it. If other people can indulge in their ships, so can I.

Odin knew all about immortality. Odin knew more about immortality than Uno possibly could.

The simple reason was time.

Uno was young. Uno was naive, though he would have never admitted it then. He had his body- he could walk among the mortals, play their games, live a life so like theirs. He could be one of them.

He thought he could be one of them.

Odin knew better. He could never be one of them.

Often he found his gaze drawn to a wall of pictures- pictures from his life not as Odin, but as Uno. Uno Ducklair, rather than Odin Eidolon- pictures Donald took of him, his first experiences, him with Donald, him with Donald’s family, him with their friends.

Uno smiled. He was so happy.

Odin smiled. He was not so happy. The pictures spoke a story that Uno hadn’t realized was unfolding. The pictures- arranged chronologically, as Odin was so prone to do- spoke the story of temporary bliss. A story of doomed love.

It was the story of an immortal and a mortal.

* * *

Uno hadn’t noticed it. Years passed by, years of adventure and fun and bliss. He had Donald by his side, and everything happened so fast later he would wonder where all of the time went.

Fighting bad guys, discovering lost temples, uncovering legends- it was all a day in the life of Donald Duck- Paperinik- and his family and friends.

Love was unexpected. The first time he turned to his best friend and kissed Donald- no real warning, it had been a high-stress moment and they lived to see another day,  _ Donald _ lived to see another day, and it just seemed like the right thing to do- he’d been more surprised than his friend.

But it had started an adventure Uno had never even considered. A life hand-in-hand with his partner-against-crime (and alien invasions), a life with more meaning than computers, satellites and shields. 

Suddenly his life included children- watching them grow up by Donald’s side, attending PTA meetings and helping them with their homework. His life included family reunions, several different  _ ‘If you hurt him I will kill you’ _ talks from various members of Donald’s family (including his nephews and, surprisingly, his cousins), holidays at the farm, so many things he had never even thought about.

Everything seemed normal. Everything was blissful. Children grew up, some of them even got married (Huey had a wedding and Uno remembered even when he became Odin how Donald smiled through the tears- how Donald returned home that night and sat in Huey’s old bedroom, just remembering the little boy he raised), a new generation of Duck-McDucks began to hatch...

Then reality hit them hard.

Grandma was the first to pass away, old and tired but having lived to see her granddaughter come home- having lived to see her grandson and her great grandchildren get their happy ever afters, to see her great great grandchildren hatch. Donald cried for days, but he knew- he knew she’d been happy. 

It was the first time Uno found himself considering religion and afterlife- something Donald believed in, something Uno did not. For the first time, Uno hoped to be wrong.

Things became normal again. Adventure continued. Love thrived. Scrooge continued to live on, spry in his old unnatural age, and Huey’s daughter confided in Uno that she had a crush on the curly-haired redhead three classes over. Uno thought she was too young-

Then he blinked and remembered she was fifteen.

He turned around and in that moment everything fell into place. For the first time he realized how much time had passed- consciously aware, and he looked at Donald and saw him- saw him the way he always did, the duck he loved and always would- and saw him the way others did.

Donald wasn’t young anymore. He wasn’t old- but he was. He was already sixty-five, and Uno came to the sudden realization that the children he watched grow up were already forty.

In the blink of an eye, thirty years had passed them by. He’d be lucky to have thirty more.

The looks they received from strangers- people Uno didn’t recognize, a generation of ducks he never knew- finally made sense to him. 

Donald was already sixty-four. Uno hadn’t aged a single day. 

He didn’t care. He was determined to enjoy the limited time he had left with his family.

* * *

Donald finally gave up hero work when he turned sixty-eight. He couldn’t keep up anymore, and Louie’s son- hardly nineteen years old- took up the mask and cape in his stead.

Uno stayed stubbornly by Donald’s side, through it all. Scrooge’s unnatural aging- the man was almost 200 years old by then- couldn’t save him from death, and once more Uno sat by Donald’s side as he mourned another family member.

At seventy-two, Della died. Donald wished he’d had more time with her- thirty-eight years just hadn’t been enough. Uno could understand- it wasn’t enough for Uno, either.

Dewey was the first of the children to die. No one was expecting it- a trap in a temple he and Huey were investigating, and Donald- seventy-four- only wished he had encouraged them to stop adventuring when they hit their forties. 

_ Dewey would still be here, _ Donald was so sure, and this time only Huey, Louie and Webby could give any sort of comfort.

Time was cruel- thirty blissful years, and Uno could see youth was kind to Huey and Louie’s children. Growing up, one of them already had a young duckling and another on the way, another was well on her way to a doctorate, and Uno was so happy for them- but as he watched Donald’s generation fall, he knew it was only a matter of time.

Donald finally passed when he was seventy-nine years old, and this time Uno, Huey, Louie and Webby had to comfort each other.

The only solace was that Uno knew he’d see Donald again some day.

Odin would see him again some day.

It was only a matter of time before Gladstone and Fethry both passed- thankfully peacefully- and Uno could only stand by as Huey, Louie and Webby followed suit.

Time seemed to crawl, yet speed past; Uno watched as the children he watched grow up- and the ones he helped raise- and the ones he could only watch from a distance as the family moved on and forgot about the past- grew old with time. The mask and cape continued to be passed down- from Donald, to Louie’s son, to Louie’s twin granddaughters, to the elder twin’s youngest son... and on and on it went.

Only he was less involved in every new PK.

The Duck-McDuck family lived on, but there was no place for Uno in it anymore. He retreated to Ducklair Tower once more, and when he left again years later it was with a new name and a new face.

Now Uno Ducklair lived only in photographs, and Odin Eidolon carried the memory of seven generations of Duck-McDucks.

* * *

The first time he saw Donald, something inside him twisted.

It had been a good century and then some since he last saw his lover, and it was all he could do to not reveal himself right then and there.

But he knew he couldn’t.

Uno Ducklair and Odin Eidolon are two different people, with two different experiences.

And if he wished he could warn himself how it all ended- if he, for a moment, considered changing everything...

Well. He dismissed the idea. As much as the end of their story hurt, he wouldn’t have changed it for anything.

He wouldn’t give up those happy times, even to be rid of the bad.

And if they lived only in memory? 

He’d remember them well.

* * *

The story wasn’t quite a story of the immortal and the mortal. Machines don’t last forever. Not even ones as advanced as Odin Eidolon.

Uno Ducklair had known that. Odin Eidolon had forgotten.

It was a strange sensation, falling into sleep- a deep sleep, one unlike anything he could remember feeling- only to wake up, as if in a dream, surrounded by what seemed like neverending light.

Memories always played through Uno and Odin’s mind as they recharged- as they “slept.” Memories of the good, of the bad, of what was and never would be again. But those things- they had always been real. They had happened, once upon a time, someway or somehow.

This, though? This was not a memory. There was light- so much light- yet nothing at all stretching on around him. He looked down at himself, at his hands. Slender fingers, but his wrists weren’t as thin as they once were. His white feathers were a little more grey- familiar feathers that did not belong to Odin, but to Uno. 

He felt warmth, felt a strange energy through his body, like he was and was not at the same time.

He felt light. Like he was fading.

_ Is this what it feels like to die? _

The thought seemed to echo out into the forever around him. He was not afraid. He felt strangely calm. Like this? This was normal. This was... this was okay.

_ “Uno?” _

The voice reached him- so familiar, yet so young. Uno looked up and there were people there.

Donald was there, young- or younger, if Uno had to guess he’d say Donald was in his mid to late thirties again- and by his side was Dewey, hardly a day over twenty-five, and Huey and Louie and Webby, too, were by him. Scrooge stood with Grandma, Gladstone and Fethry in the back, watching quietly as the family seemed to come out of the nothingness around. Children and grandchildren seemed to come forward to greet him, seeming delighted to finally have him join them-

And Donald smiled at him. 

_ “We’ve been waiting!” _ Donald said, and Louie’s hands are on his hips as he added,  _ “You’re late, Unc.” _

_ “Think you could’a joined us a century or so ago?”  _ Huey asked, though he smiled too, and Scrooge just rolled his eyes.

_ “Never could get with the program, huh?” _ Dewey said as Webby just laughed,  _ “Always gotta be different, good ol’ Uncle Uno.” _

Uno didn’t know if he was dreaming. Maybe he was dead? But how could he be here if he were dead? Uno was an android. Surely no afterlife would apply to him?

But then Donald was taking his hand and he didn’t care. Uno hugged Donald tightly-  _ “I missed you...” _

And that was all that needed to be said. The light of the nothingness around them- the light of forever- only seemed to become brighter and brighter.

Uno didn’t let go.


End file.
